Legacy of Gold and Sand
by Em Gris
Summary: After millennia, the fabled ritual of Ascension is attempted once more by Shurima's young emperor and his magus. Only tragedy can follow. Based on official League lore.


The sun had not yet risen. The dark sand dunes were strangely stagnant without their daylight shimmer or the stirring hands of the nightly winds. The sand, like the people, would wake with the sun, and the empire would roar with laughter, music, and the clamor of prosperity, but for now, Shurima slept in silence.

All except for two, that is.

They stood side by side on the ritual platform on top of the Grand Temple, overlooking the Emperor's Way and the rest of the city. Above them, the Sun Disc, the ancient symbol of Shurima's wealth and power, floated above their heads.

"The stars are beautiful," the young man said softly. "Dawn is arriving, yet they persist. Sometimes I forget that even when our Sun is awake, they're still looking down at us."

"Indeed," said his older companion. His deep voice was equally hushed, but quivered slightly.

The young man smiled. "Nervous?"

"Eager, sire," the other replied quickly, but then faltered. "A little nervous. The ritual can be quite dangerous. Perhaps its not too late to enlist the help of the priests?"

His brow furrowed. "No. You said yourself they would not approve."

His decisiveness made the other man smile. "Are you not nervous at all?"

The emperor thought for a moment, turning his gaze upward again. The Sun Disc, as large in diameter as half the city, glowed gently against its sleek, dark background.

"Surprisingly, no," he said. "I just feel… ready. I can do this, but more importantly, the world _needs_ this. With the power I achieve from Ascending, I can spread Shurima's culture and prosperity to even the darkest reaches of Runeterra."

The silence of the evening re-enveloped the two men as they both stared at the disc above them. No one knew exactly where the Sun Disc came from. It was older than even Shurima's ancient history. No accounts of its creation had ever been uncovered. It simply existed.

"Xerath," the young man said suddenly. "I want to thank you for everything you've done for me. Being emperor is not easy, and everything that I have accomplished could not have been done without you as my friend and my magus. This ritual would not be happening without you."

"It is too early to thank me, sire."

"Nonsense."

Xerath glanced at the emperor. The emperor was young, but his shoulders were already extremely broad, as if his body knew of the burden they had to bear. He could see the pure determination in the dark depths of the youth's eyes. He looked away. Above them, the last stars faded as the sky's dark velvet began to brighten.

"The Sun will be up soon," the magus said, straightening the mini Sun Disc replica belted around the emperor's waist. Satisfied, he took a step back and nodded. The emperor squared his shoulders, and walked proudly to the centre of the engraved diagram patterned into the stone. Xerath stood towards the back of the large platform, outside the diagram, wringing his hands.

"I'm ready," said the emperor.

The Sun didn't keep them waiting. The first rays breached the horizon with fervor, and the Sun Disc immediately caught the light, gleaming with a brightness that seemed to come from a source more internal than external. It hummed electrically for a moment before reflecting the Sun's steadily growing light into a concentrated beam a few feet in front of the platform, as if focusing it through a magnifying glass. They watched it with awe as it slowly crept towards them. The emperor wondered if the last people to perform this ritual so many millennia ago felt the same fluttering in their chests that he did, but he didn't have long to wonder.

Like a switch was flicked, the sun rose to just the right height, and the dais was flooded with sunlight. Amplified by the disc, the light bathed the young emperor in gold. Then he felt the power. It hit him like a blade through the chest, sharp, but warm.

Xerath watched him rise with cold eyes.

* * *

Nasus' ear twitched.

"Brother?" he said.

"I feel it," Renekton growled, clutching his weapon. It was impossible not to. Even this far out from the city, the atmosphere crackled with arcane energy. He remembered the feeling as if it was yesterday. The energy in the air felt the same as when he and Nasus performed the ritual. But Shurima was experiencing one of the most peaceful moments of its history. With no other empire able to stand up to its might, and with a brief lull in its imperial conquests, Shurima had no enemies to fight. Why would someone be attempting the ritual now?

"Something's not right," Nasus said. It was more a premonition than anything else, but he'd learned to trust his canine instincts. Something terrible was on the way. He knew it as deeply as he knew anything.

The ground trembled beneath their feet. The brothers looked at each other briefly, and wordlessly took off towards the centre of the city. They were in the desert, miles away from the capital, but even from here they could see the unmistakable glow of the Sun Disc. With inhuman strength and speed, it didn't take them long to reach the outskirts of the city, and without pause, they leapt onto the rooftops. The ground continued to tremor, and they could hear the citizens of Shurima stir from their sleep.

Nasus sensed it seconds before it happened. Eyes widening, he looked at the twisted expression on Renekton's scaly face and he knew his brother sensed it too. An enormous pulse of energy burst from the epicenter of the city. It hit Nasus mid-leap like a gust of wind, and he clutched his chest as an unbearable pain stabbed his heart, knees buckling beneath him as he landed on a rooftop. He hit the surface hard, but hardly felt the impact.

Nasus lay there, stunned. It was darker than a few seconds ago, and Nasus thought he might be about to pass out before he realized what the darkening really was; the Sun Disc's light had been extinguished. Not even on the darkest nights had the Sun Disc been so dull. Nasus' ears flicked back and forth, searching for the stirring sounds of people he had heard only seconds ago. Searching, searching in vain. In a mere instant, everything had… had—

"Come on, Nasus," Renekton said. Nasus felt his brother's claws grip his bicep and pull him to his feet. He shook his head clear, the pain in his chest subsiding a little. Renekton was right. He could not allow himself to think about what just happened. Something evil had just been released into the world. They picked up their weapons, jumped down to street level, and continued their sprint down the Emperor's Way to the centre of the city. They moved just as quickly as before, but Nasus felt ten times heavier. Their shadows were long as they moved through the silent city.

They only slowed when they heard the laughter. It made his fur stand on end. If thunder laughed, Nasus thought that's how it would sound. The Grand Temple stood before them, and a shapeless form of pure, blue arcane energy floated near the edge. The laughter died down, and the energy looked at them. Nasus didn't know how it was looking at them with no eyes but he could feel its piercing gaze.

"My fellow Ascendants," the creature said. Like the gaze, Nasus could feel the reverberations of the words more than he could actually hear them. He shuddered.

"Do you know what you have done?" Renekton shouted hoarsely.

"I have freed myself," the energy said.

Before anything else could be said, there was a groaning sound like straining metal and all three Ascendants looked up. Jaws open in disbelief, Renekton and Nasus watched as whatever ancient magics kept the Sun Disc floating faltered and failed. There was a single second where it seemed that even the Sun Disc couldn't believe what was happening.

Then it began to fall.

Nasus and Renekton froze as the shadow of the Disc engulfed them. Even as demi-gods, they wouldn't live through being crushed by something so monolithic. The energy being too, seemed to be stunned. Then it began to laugh again. It's blue light swelled, lightning crackled, and then it aimed a beam of energy at the center of the Disc. The beam was tiny and thread-like in comparison to the colossus falling on them, but Nasus' fur stood on end.

"Such power," he growled. Renekton was silent.

Above them, the dull gold of the Sun Disc cracked once with an earsplitting groan, and then succumbed, crumbling into thousands of pieces. The brothers gripped their weapons. Nasus grimaced as both relief and grief flooded through him. They had been saved from certain death, but at what cost?

Chunks of dull gold, some the size of houses, rained down upon them and the rest of the city. They dodged what they could, smashed smaller chunks when they couldn't. The ground shuddered with each meteoric strike. The Grand Temple was reduced to rubble, and they lost sight of the new Ascendant.

"Renekton!" Nasus warned.

The crocodile looked up at a particularly large chunk falling at him, and leapt just far enough out of the way. Or so he thought. The chunk struck the ground, but, to his surprise, didn't stop. It broke straight through the earth, straight into the deep burial tombs that sprawled beneath the city, opening up a gaping hole in the ground. Renekton swore as the ground beneath his feet gave way. Dropping his weapon, he twisted, barely managing to grab on to some stable earth. He winced as another piece of the Sun Disc flew past his head into the dark depths beneath him.

He heard Nasus call out his name again and grunted, tail swishing in agitation. Heart pounding, he took a deep breath and tried to pull himself up.

"I'm oka—"

Another chunk of the Sun Disc hit the surface nearby. The weakened ground quickly crumbled around him, and Renekton snarled as the ground his claws clung to collapsed. He fell into the dark tombs below.

* * *

There was an ocean of rubble in the tombs. They had fallen near the Tomb of Emperors. Nasus recognized it by its enormous golden doors, and the statue of the enormous cobra that guarded its entrance. Miraculously, both the tomb and the snake were unharmed.

Nasus climbed over the debris and chunks of gold, ears twitching for any sound. Sun shone through the hole, hundreds of meters above, gifting him with a little light. It was deafeningly quiet now that the raining torrent of gold had ended. He smelled Renekton's blood, and he felt the arcane energy of their opponent thick in the air, but neither were anywhere in sight.

"Renekton!" he shouted.

It didn't even echo.

"Amazing," said a voice like thunder behind him. Nasus turned. The new Ascended – no, Nasus would not acknowledge it as an Ascended being – the _Abominati_ on of arcane energy hovered deeper in the shadows in front of the Tomb of Emperors. "I have never felt so alive… so eternal."

Nasus growled. "Who are you?" he said.

"My name is Xerath."

Nasus frowned. That was not the name of any of the current royal family or priests of the Grand Temple. The Ascension ritual was a well kept secret of the royal family and the Temple's priests, so who had this man been?

"It doesn't matter," he said, more to himself then to the being before him. "All of this is your doing," Nasus said. "The Sun Disc… All those people..."

"All things perish," it said simply.

Nasus felt his anger boil. "And so will you." With a roar, he unleashed his latent power, growing in physical size as well as in strength. "Eternity is beyond your reach!"

He leapt at the Abomination, closing the distance between them in one powerful stride. It dodged his halberd, but Nasus summoned a circle of spirit fire beneath it. It grunted and quickly retreated, as if surprised that its nonphysical body could be harmed.

"Magic?" it hissed. "I'll show you _real_ magic."

It fired a blast of energy at his chest. Even in his empowered form, the impact knocked Nasus off his feet, back into the rubble under the sun. Static in the air around him. He rolled out of the way as a blast came from above this time. He wouldn't be empowered for much longer. He needed to end this. Ducking another blast, he leapt towards Xerath again.

"Nasus!"

Renekton leaned heavily against the wall, blood trickling down the side of his face. With a grunt, he heaved something towards Nasus. Sleek, metal. A Sarcophagus. Nasus understood.

Quickly casting a spell, Nasus Withered Xerath's movements. There was a static, electric moment as he thought he could sense a brief moment of panic coming from the arcane energy. Then he caught the sarcophagus midair and slammed it around the spectral being with a loud clang, followed closely by Renekton, who secured the prison with a thick chain.

Inside, the arcane creature raged. The sarcophagus shook madly, and Nasus grunted, holding the sarcophagus shut as Renekton locked it.

And then it was still. Tentatively, Nasus loosened his hold on the sarcophagus and let it fall to the ground, feeling the power he'd summoned slowly slip away. He dropped to one knee. Breathing hard, both brothers looked at each other.

"Are you alright?" Nasus asked.

"Fine," said Renekton, wiping some of the blood away from his eyes. "Just took a while to dig myself out of the rubble."

They stared at the silver metal sarcophagus. Shaped like an almond, it was almost as tall as Nasus, with ancient Shuriman decorative engravings and spikes along the edges from a popular a trend that had come and gone a couple centuries after the brothers' Ascension. A hexagonal symbol was embedded on the chest of the sarcophagus. Nasus wasn't sure what it meant.

"It should hold him," Renekton said. "The chains at least a magicked."

Nasus nodded blankly. "It called itself Xerath," he said.

"Xerath?"

Nasus nodded again.

"I've heard the name before," Renekton said.

"It does sound familiar," Nasus agreed. "But I don't recall who it belonged to."

Nasus suddenly regretted the distance that they kept between them and the people of the empire. The distance hadn't been intentional. It just kind of happened as they continued to outlive the people they knew and loved. They had kept tabs on the royal family and the priests, but it had been millennia since they had any relationships beyond that. Nasus sighed.

"What now?" he asked.

Renekton couldn't find any way to respond. Their entire purpose had been to protect Shurima, and now Shurima was gone. The falling Sun Disc destroyed most of the capital, and the people, young and old, had been reduced to dust and sand from the corrupted ritual. With no people, there was no empire. Somber silence surrounded them.

The sarcophagus shook.

Renekton's eyes narrowed and Nasus jumped to his feet. The atmosphere around then became saturated with malice. It shook again, and began to crack, blue light seeping through the metal like bolts of lightning.

"Impossible," said Renekton.

The sarcophagus exploded into shards. The blast sent the brothers flying in different directions, Nasus into the the shadows by the Tomb of Emperors, and Renekton back into the majority of the rubble.

It began to laugh again. Nasus was really beginning to hate that sound. It grated at his ears. It floated grandly between the two brothers, larger broken pieces of the sarcophagus floating in place about its blue body like armour, while smaller pieces orbited it like little moons.

"You cannot contain me," Xerath said. "I am stronger than either of you will ever be. You stand in the presence of a perfect being."

Nasus growled. It was mocking them. Clutching his halberd, he charged at the creature once more, but was immediately struck down by an arcane ball.

"Nasus!" Renekton shouted.

Nasus managed to catch himself on one knee, supporting himself with his weapon, but pain wracked his chest. He couldn't move.

Renekton roared. Like Nasus earlier, he summoned his Ascended power, increasing in size and strength. He didn't have his weapon, but he didn't need it. It was clear that as Nasus and he were now, they had no chance of defeating this Xerath. But there was another way to keep this evil from corrupting the rest of Runeterra.

Renekton leapt at the Ascendant. He was faster than Nasus, able to close distances quicker, and he knew it would catch the creature off guard. It felt invincible right now, and that would be its downfall. He lowered his shoulder and tackled it. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to touch the spectral energy normally, but with the pieces of the sarcophagus still floating around, he at least had something to grab onto. A bolt of electricity shot through him when he made contact with the metal, almost causing his muscles to sieze, but he caught himself. Without a physical body, Xerath was light, and couldn't put up much resistance. Renekton's confidence in his plan grew.

"Nasus, open the doors!" he ordered.

Nasus pushed himself to his feet with some effort. Doors? It didn't take him long to realize what Renekton meant. The Tomb of the Emperor. There was a spell on the Tomb of Emperor's which prevented normal people from opening its doors to prevent possible desecration of past emperors, and it was impossible to open unless opened from the outside. Nasus ran to the heavy, golden doors and pulled the left half open.

Xerath roared in anger as Renekton shot through the opening, and into the depths of the tomb. His face contorted with pain as the creature sent shock after shock of arcane energy into him, but the crocodile refused to let go.

"Seal it!" Renekton shouted. Nasus could hear the pain in his voice.

"But–"

"Now!"

Nasus hesitated for a split second, before sensing an enormous accumulation of arcane energy. Gritting his teeth, he shut the door, sealing the evil and his brother away.

As soon as the door shut, the presence of both arcane energy and Renekton vanished. Nasus held his breath for a few moments. He half expected something to burst through the doors. A little ashamedly, a part of him even wanted that to happen. At least that way, his brother wouldn't be killed – or worse – be sealed for eternity with the mad creature who had singlehandedly brought Shurima's demise. But there was no sound. Not even Nasus' canine ears could pick up any noise beyond the drizzle of sand being pushed down the crater by the warm morning breeze. Above him, the ruby eyes of the guardian serpent statue glimmered.

Slowly, Nasus put his back to the door and sank to the ground, head in his hands, listening to the sand drizzle into the tombs from above.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Comments and critiques are welcome and highly encouraged. :)


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